The weblog of Irfan Yusuf, bush lawyer, humorist and award-winning author, once a small-c conservative but now politically left right out. His often irreverent take on things appears in some newspapers in Australia and New Zealand and online. His comic memoir "Once Were Radicals: My Years As A Teenage Islamo-fascist" was published in May 2009 and won the Iremonger Award for Public Issues Writing.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

NSW Religious Right kicks goals for Morris Iemma

Once again the NSW Religious Right faction of the Liberal Party are kicking political goals for Morris Iemma.

The faction, led by a small bunch linked to the Catholic lay order Opus Dei, is putting factional interests before Peter Debnam’s push to become the first non-Labor conservative premier since Bob Carr was elected in 1995.

The antics of the faction are becoming more sinister, with its apparatchiks even sidelining not-so-religious conservatives.

Campbell, a seasoned campaigner with substantial experience in campus and mainstream election campaigns, is a former staffer to Howard loyalist Senator Bill Heffernan.

Mr Clarke has, over the years, had a love-hate relationship with Mr Heffernan. Clarke’s influence within the NSW Party organisation has almost eclipsed that of Heffernan. The new NSW Young Liberal President (who is automatically granted a place on the NSW State Executive) has close links to Opus Dei. The current Federal Young Liberal President, Alex Hawke, works in Mr Clarke’s office.

Clarke and Heffernan have been vying to gain some control of the non-aligned yet largely conservative middle ground votes in the NSW Liberal Party State Council, which consists of delegates from branches and state electorate conferences. State Council delegates vote to elect members of the State Executive, and also are eligible to be drawn out of a hat in preselection ballots.

The broader conservative wing of the NSW Party has tended to be a mixture of religious and more secular conservative elements, together with disgruntled and ambitious former members of the small “l” liberal faction often referred to as “The Group”.

The near-takeover of the Right faction by the Christian Right has forced some unusual alliances to take place. Group sources have informed me of secret meetings taking place between non-religious Right Howard-loyalists (including possibly Campbell and Heffernan) and organisers for The Group.

The not-so-religious-Right are concerned that Clarke forces have been trying to stack branches with members of Christian groups and denominations with often conflicting agendas. Particular concern has been expressed over Clarke’s attempts to ingratiate some Iraqi denominations whose views on Iraqi national sovereignty represent a departure from Australia’s foreign policy.

Clarke’s involvement in local Iraqi affairs has been noticed by members of other Iraqi denominations (and therefore presumably by the Iraqi embassy).

Since the bombing of the Shia Muslim shrine on February 22 2006, over 20,000 Iraqis have died in sectarian clashes.

With Australian troops stationed in Iraq, and with extremists on all sides of the sectarian divide seeking scapegoats, it is highly irresponsible for any State MP to ingratiate him or herself with one side whilst pursuing a sectarian agenda in Parliament. Such activity could even pose a risk to Australian troops stationed in Iraq.

Clarke has already managed to stir up feelings from within the Palestinian community as well as with certain Lebanese groups with his praise of the Phalange leadership during at least one speech in the NSW Parliament. Playing Middle East sectarian wedge politics may assist in branch recruitment drives. However, in the long run, such recruitment may come at a long-term political cost.

No doubt Australians of all denominations and nationalities should be welcomed by all major parties. At the same time, the Liberal Party cannot allow itself to be used as a political caravanserai for sectarian crackpots.

Peter Debnam has placed his credibility on the line by accusing the NSW Government of rewarding Lebanese Muslim groups for branch stacking services by going soft on crime. Yet now his own efforts at becoming premier are being undermined by sectarian branch stacking which may put the security of our nation, let alone the state of NSW, at risk.

Debnam would be well advised to rein in the Religious Right now before it is too late.

(The author was a member of the Liberal Party in NSW for a decade until allowing his membership to lapse in 2002. He was a member of State Council and edited 2 conservative youth publications. He was also an endorsed Liberal candidate for Local Government and for a NSW Federal Seat, achieving a 2-party preferred swing of 5.1% in the latter.)

14 comments:

LOL! Everyone knows that the Religious Right has used Lebanese Muslims to stack their branches even when they knew these people were already signed upto the ALP.

Irf is highlighting and bringing to the attention of the public how dangerous the Religious Right is. They are even happy to take on causes that potentially threaten the lives of Australian troops serving in Iraq.

The Catholic Mullahs of the NSW Religious Right are as bad as the Mullahs of HAMAS happy to send other people's kids on suicide missions. As if any of members of Opus Dei are serving in Iraq.

Man this sux soo bad. Every body is thinking islam and the jihadists are threats to Australia, America and the West. Thats a load of shit. The biggest threat to the world is China. There are 35million chinese in the west, and 1200 chinese spies here. The chinese and japanese have a threatening level of loyalty to their nations and national pride. Nearly 50% of ppl in aussie unis are chinese. China is basically about to control the world economy and spends more on its military then everything else combined together.

If Australia and Lebanon were to meet in a battle field, i bet my balls that lebs wouldn't side up with lebanon. Whereas the chinese and australia were to fighy, you'd have each and every chinese here siding up with china.

Everybody gives muslims shit about lakemba being a Leb strong hold and ghetto..Pffft, what the heck about china towns in each and every single city here.

Doesnt sound obvious that the chinese are a more harsh threat? If America has 1 guantanamo, China will have 100. Just look how it treats its 40million muslim population. China has 40million muslims, and the state that they are in a majority is treated as a nuclear dump!!

Screw this shit..I rather have America as the boss than china. Wake up sleeping Aussies, lebs and muzzis (extreme or moderate) are in no way a threat as compared to china.

ananoymous 4.22pm u toss bag...go suck a donkey's ball sac. are u chinses? first it used to be 'reds under the beds' now it'll be 'yellows under the pillows'. you chinese are everywhere, like a disease.

Australia and Assyrians have more in common then any other group in Iraq, no body cares about Australian troops in Iraq more then the Assyrian community there, troops attend church services with the community and the relationship goes all the way back to world war 1 as allies fighting on the side of freedom.

It would be un-Australian to ignore the plight of Assyrians because its "too hard"

Assyrians there arent asking for special treatment they are asking for equality. If anyone is playing politics its you guys.

You know they brought you the WHEEL, LENS, CALANDER, THE NUMBER 0 and a bunch more shit, so go play your playstation that would probably not exist because we would be playing with square CD's, YOU SHMUCK